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Kisakata Kujukushima

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

KisakataKujukushimaBasho1804 upliftNikaho

Photo: 掬茶 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · original

Kisakata Kujukushima is one of the reasons Akita keeps coming up whenever the conversation turns to Japan's landscapes.

Basho came to Kisakata in 1689 and wrote that Matsushima seems to smile while Kisakata seems to grieve. What he saw was a shallow lagoon scattered with more than a hundred pine-covered islets, considered the equal of Matsushima. In 1804 an earthquake lifted the whole basin more than two metres and the sea drained away.

The islands are still there. They stand in rice paddies now — low green mounds with pines on them, dotted across flat farmland with Mt. Chokai behind. For a few weeks in late spring, when the paddies are flooded before planting, water returns between them and you see approximately what Basho saw. Kanmanji temple at the centre is the starting point for a marked circuit, and the whole thing is a national Place of Scenic Beauty and Natural Monument.

Plan your visit

Time to allow

60–90 minutes for the circuit

Hours

Open access

Closed: Open year-round | The flooded-paddy effect is seasonal

Best time to visit

Late April–early June, while the paddies are flooded

Entry fee

Free

Getting there

Access notes

Kisakatajima, Kisakata-machi, Nikaho. Short distance from JR Kisakata Station. Free to visit; a marked island circuit starts from Kanmanji temple, founded in 853. The islands are surrounded by water only when the paddies are flooded before rice planting, typically from late April to early June.

Beyond the guidebook

**Late April to early June.** The flooded paddies are the entire point — that is the few weeks when the islands are surrounded by water and the lagoon Basho described comes back. Any other month they are mounds in a field. **Start at Kanmanji.** The temple at the centre is where the marked circuit begins and it holds the Basho connection. Founded 853. **Read the haiku first.** Basho's line about Kisakata grieving is one of the best-known in Japanese literature and it is the reason the landscape is protected. Twenty minutes with Oku no Hosomichi transforms the visit. **The 1804 earthquake is the story.** Two metres of uplift in one night turned a celebrated seascape into farmland. There is a marker recording it. **Mt. Chokai is the backdrop.** Clear days put a snow-capped volcano behind the islands, which is what makes the flooded-paddy photographs.

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